Automatic filler feed for cigar machines



Feb W, 1931. v. s. HANSON v h AUTOMATIC FILLER FEED FOR CIGAR MACHINES Filed Aug. 23. 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet l Feb. 10, 1931.

v. G. HANSON 1,791,558

AUTOMATIC FILLER FEED FOR CIGAR MACHINES Filed Aug. 23. 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY Feb. w, 11931. v. G. HANSON 9 5 AUTOMATIC FILLER FEED FOR CIGAR MACHINES Filed Aug. 23, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 TTORNEY Feb. 10, 1931. v, G. HANSON 1,791,558

AUTOMATIC FILLER FEED FOR CIGAR MACHINES Filed Aug. 23, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 reamed Pa. 10, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

vIcTon e. HANsoN, or BnooxLrN, NEW YORK, AssIeNon To INTERNATIoNAL CIGAR MACHINERY coMrANY, A CORPORATION or NEW JERSEY AUToMATzo FILLER FEED ron cram M omNEs Application filed August 23, 1928. serial No. 301,499.

This invention relates to automatic filler feeds for cigar machines, of the type in which a la er of filler tobacco is automatically fed into a charge forming device in the proper amount and at suitable intervals m vice and from which the charge is 'cut, be uniform in volume and density during successivev cuts-,,s1nce otherwlse many of the resulting bunches will be too large or too small and too hard or too soft, and the cigars made thereis from will be similarly defective. Moreover,

since the cigar machine is fitted to a cer-- tain size and density of bunch, failure of the machine to operate or actual damage to themachine may result.

Accordingly, the main ob'ect of the invention is to produce improve means for controlling. the feed to the charge forming device, so that successive charges formed there: by will be uniform and contain a predetermined volume of tobacco at a predetermined density.

Another object is to provide an improved feed of this type whereby the density and;

volume of the c arge may be accurately controlled.

on attaining the desired volume and density of tobacco in the charge formingmeans.

Still another object is to provide an automatic filler feed which is relatively simple in construction and positive and reliable in action, since failure of the filler feed to stop when a predetermined volume and density of tobacco has been fed into the charge forming means would not only roduce a defective charge but be likely to amage the machine.

With these and other objects in view,'the

invention consists in certain constructions and combinationswhich will be hereinafter fully described and then set forth in the claims hereunto appended.

In the accompanying drawings which form a part of this specification, and in which likev characters of reference indicate the same or "like parts:

Fig. 1 is a top view,- partlyin cross section of the improved automatic filler feed mec amsm;

- Fig. 2 is a side elevation on line 22 of the assembly shown in Fig. 1;

' Fig.3 is an end elevation, partly broken away, of the filler feed mechanism shown in 'Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is. a detail front elevation of the feed control gearing taken on line H of Figs. 1 and 3;

Fig. 5 is a slde elevation of the feed control gearing shown in Fi 4; and

Figs. 6, 7 'and 8 are iagrammatic side elevations, partly in section, of the filler feed mechanism, showing the relative positions of the various working parts at different stages of its operation.

In carrying the invention into effect, there is provided in an automatic .filler feed for cigar machines, means for receiving a charge of tobacco having a yieldin member for arresting and compacting tel) together with means for feeding tobacco into acco therein,

said receiving means and against said memher, and means are .provided for controlling the feeding means, which are set into operation by movement of the member in response to the pressure of the tobacco in the tobacco receiving means. The best constructions will also include adjustable means for loading said yielding member against movement by tobacco of less than predetermined density, thereby regulating the density of tobacco in the charge. In the preferred form, the controlling means-will include adjustable means for controlling the volunie of the tobacco delivered to said receiving means. Preferably, the feed controlling means will include a rotor, mechanism coacting with the rotor and feed to stop the feed when the rotor is free to rotate, and releasable means for holding said rotor against rotation, so that on releasing said means the feed will immediately be discontinued.

The means above referred to may be widely varied in construction within the scope of the claims, for the particular machine selected to illustrate the invention is but one of many possible embodiments of the same. The in vention, therefore,'is not to be restricted to the precise details of the structure shown and described.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 5, the filler feed mechanism is mounted on frames 9 and 10 which are fastened to the base 11 of thecigar machine, of which the present device is a part, The feed drum 13 is carried by a shaft 12 provided with a hand wheel 14, and this shaft is driven from the cigar machine by a chain 15 on a sprocket 16 which revolves loosely 'on the shaft 12: and carries the planetary gears 17 and- 18 which mesh withgears 19 and 20, respectively, also on the shaft 12. The gears 17 and 18 of the driving sprocket are fastened together or are made integral and revolve loosely on their shafts 21; the gear 19, meshing with gear 17, is keyed toshaft 12, while gear 20, meshing with 18,.is integral with the toothed wheel or rotor 22 and revolves freely on shaft 12 when not held by a pawl 23. When the pawl 23 is lifted off the toothed wheel, the motion of the sprocket 16 is transmitted to the free running gear instead of driving gear 19, and the shaft 12 ceases to'revolve, thus immediately discontinuing the driving of the feed drum 13. The

feed is started when-the pawl 23 is held in engagement with the toothed wheel 22 by the spring 24 attached to side frame 10 by plate 25.

- The feed belt 26, on which the filler tobacco is read and which is driven by the drum 13, is guided by stationary pulleys 27 and 28, and adjustable pulley 29, and its working pgrtion is supported by a plate 30 extending v Oneend of the plate 30 and one end of the pulley 27' tween the pulleys 27 and 28.

are supported by a bracket 31 mounted on a tie rod 32 between the frames 9 and 10. The other end of the plate 30 rests on a tie rod bracket 33 and carries a bracket 34 for supporting the other end of the pulley 28. j

The adjustable pulley 29 issupported'by belt tightener brackets 35, each of which has an a justing screw 36. i The feed belt 26 carries the filler tobacco l under leveling star wheels 37 suspended by an adjusting bracket 38 mounted on shaft 39 by the sliding hinge pieces 40. The star wheels are driven by sprocket. 41 and chain 42 from a sprocket 43 mounted on the shaft 39 supported by a bracket 44.' Theangular position of bracket 38 is fixed by adjusting a screw 45 seated on theb'racket 44 which is held in tension by a spring 46, thereby controlling the longitudinal position of the star wheels 37 which are loosely mounted on their shaft 47. Between the individual star wheels '37. are the spacers 48 which are. keyed'on under the feeding action of the feed belt and which carries the plate 70.

against these by the adjustable spring wheels 51 which are held in place by spacers 52 and keyed on shaft 39. The shaft 39 is positively driven by 'a chain 53 from a sprocket 54 on the drum shaft 12 to a sprocket 55 and a gear 56 on an intermediate shaft 57, the direction of motion im arted by the chain bein reversed in the gear x 58 by a gear 59 m 51 w rich move the filler layer after it has left the feed belt 26, pass it on to 'the platform 60 upon which it rests under the guides 61 attached to cross bar 62 'on' the bracket 44.

Platform 60, guides 61 and a yielding member together form means for receiving the charge space 103 between them. After the proper volume of tobacco to form a charge hasbeen fed into this space, it is cut off from the mass of filler tobacco by knife 63 which slides between a shear late 64 attached to bracket 33 and shear b ade 65 fastened to latform bracket 66. The thickness of the unch charge fed is controlled by two screws 67 movable in slots in the brackets 68 on ent in'ventiomforward the bunch charge to a filler transfer, not shown, which carriesit'to ed. on the shaft 39. The star wheels its next operating position in the cigarmachine.

" In forming the charge, the filler tobacco,

the star wheels,'advances against the fingers or prongsofthe yielding'charge arrestltgfi plate 70 "until-the density of the accumula mass transmits sufiicient pressure to balance the weight arm 71 mounted on one end of the fulcrum 7 2.- The other end of this fulcrum, shaft carries an arm 73 which is con-' nected by a rod 74 with a ivoted arm 75 he weights 76 on rod 77 fixed to the weight arm 71 load the yielding member 70 against the movement by the tobacco inhthe space 103 until said tobaccov ,has reached apredetermined densit Accordingly, adjustment of these weig ts will result in regulatin the density of the tobacco in the filler c arge. y

' The volume of tobacco in the char e is determined by the movement or forwa travel of-the member 70, after the tobacco pushing "against said member has reached-the density. 'The movement of the member 76 is controlled by an adjusting screw 78 which is held against the nose 79 on the weight arm 71 by means of weight 80 one. trip" arm 81 pivoted on stud 82. The weight arm 71 rests on set screw 83, when the charge forming space is empty or in the process of being filled, and there is insuflicient pressure on the charge retaining plate to operate the trip arm.

When, however, the accumulated tobacco in the charge receiving. space has sufficient density vto-transmit the motion of the advancing filler to the member 70, the nose 79 of the weight arm 71 depresses the trip arm 81 and thereby trips-a knockout lever 84 by freeing a projection 84a on said knockout lever from a retaining nose 85 on the trip arm. The spring '86 extending between the pin 87 and the pin 88 on the frame then throws the knockout lever against an arm of the pawl 23. Trip lever 84 is pivoted on the stud 89 and its movement against the arm of the pawl instantaneously lifts the nose 90 of the pawl 23 pivoted on stud 91, to disconnect said nose from the wheel 22, whereby motion of shaft 12 and the feed drum is stopped. It will be seen that this arrangement will result in almost instantaneous discontinuing of the drive upon tripping of the lever 84.

1n this rest position of the feed belt 26, the compactedv and measured filler charge is cut into bunch length by the knife 63, and the member is pulled down by the rod 92 attached to one of the studs 93 which connect the side, arms of retaining plate 70 with the end of frame 94 swinging on shaft 95 supported by side frames 9 and 10.

After the cut charge has been removed by the transfer fingers 69, the member 70 is again raised into tobacco arresting position. At the same time, the sprocket 16 which carries a roller 96 on one of the studs 21 of the planetary gears 1718 turns around the shaft 12 until the said rollers engages with the trip lever 84 and resets the same, thereby operating the pawl and starting the filler advancing for the next charge.

If, for any reason, such as the breaking of the spring 86, the trip lever 84 should fail to Work, no damage can be done as the feed control mechanism is provided with a positive knockout of the pawl 23 which stops the feed. For this purpose, the pawl 23 has a pin 97 arranged to engage with the cam 98 attached to sprocket 16. This cam has the outer or upper track 98 extending over onehalf of its circumferenceand the inner or lower track 99 extending over the other half. When pawl 23 is resting on wheel 22, the pin 97 is on the lower or inner track 99, but when the trip lever 84 has knocked the pawl off the wheel, the cam 98 turns with respect to the wheel and its upper or outer track engages pin 97. In case the trip lever 84 should fail to operate, the upper track 98 of the cam engages the pin and thus lifts the pawl, which is then caught by the nose 100 of the latch 101, the weight of this latch on the rear side of the supporting pivot 102 being greater than that on the nose side.

The object of the latch, on lowering the pawl, is to release the pawl instantly. lts object when the pawl is lifted, is to instantly lock the pawl in lifted position and not allow the pawl to rebound or to drag over a tooth or two, which would cause a variation in the length of the charge. The latch 101 keeps the pawl 23 off the wheel 22, thereby preventing starting of the feed until the proper time.

Figs. 6, 7 and 8.,show the feed mechanism in the three principal positions in the operation of the device shown and described.

In the charge forming position (Fig. 6), the pawl 23 is in engagement with wheel 22, the trip lever 84 being held in its raised position by the nose 85 of the trip arm 81 which is held by the adjusting screw 78 seated on the nose 79 of the weight arm 71. The fingers of member 70 are raised into interfering position by the rod 92-. The shaft 12 revolves and drives the feed belt 26 and the feed wheels 51, thus causing filler leaves to be carried into the charge receiving space 103.

formed by parts 60, 61 and 70.

As soon as the charge in space 103 has attained a predetermined density, as obtained by the adjustment of weight 76, the motion of the feed wheels 51, yields to the pressure of the tobacco and moves forward. At the same time, the connecting rod 74 lifts the weight arm 71 and lowers the nose 79, and thus causes arm 81 to turn around its stud 82, thereby tripping lever 84 and disengag-- ing pawl 23 from wheel 22, as shown in Fig. 7, when the member 7'0 has moved a predetermined distance. This permits the toothed wheel 22 and with it gear 20, to turn on shaft 12, thereby stopping the feed belt 26 and the feed wheels 51, as already described. The predetermined movement of the member 70, before tripping the lever 84, is regulated by screw 78 and in consequence adjustment of this screw controls the volume of tobacco delivered by the feed means to the charge carryin'g channel 60-61.

The charge is then out, and the prongs of member 70 are pulled down by rod 92, allowing the transfer fingers 69 to forward the charge, as shown in Fig. 8. While the cut charge is bein transferred, theroller 96 carried by sproc et 16 engages with trip lever 84, as shown in Fig. 6, and pushes it back from its tripped position until the nose 85 of arm 81 locks it by means of the weight 80,

', and nose 100 of latch 101 disengages pawl 23,

thereby causing the pawl to again engage the toothed wheel 22 and cause shaft 12 to revolve and, with'it, the feed belt 26'and feed going to machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a ielding member for arresting tobacco therein, of means for feeding tobacco into said receiving means and against said member, and

5 means for controlling the feeding means set into operation by movement of the member in response to pressure by said tobacco, said controlling means including adjustable means controlling the volume of the tobacco 1 delivered to said receiving means.

2. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a yielding member for arresting tobacco 5 therein, of means for feeding tobacco into said receiving means and against said member, and means for controlling the feeding means set into operation by movement of the member in response to pressure by said tozo bacco, said controlling means including a rotor, mechanism coacting with said rotor and said feed to stop the feed when the rotor is free to rotate, and releasable means for holding said rotor against rotation.

3. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a yielding member for arresting tobacco therem, of means for feeding tobacco into said rereiving means and against said member, and means for controlling the feeding means set into operation by movement of the member in response to pressure by said tobacco, said controlling means including a rotor, a plane- 85 tary gear transmission coacting with said rotor and said feed to stop the feed when the rotor is free to rotate and to start the feed when the rotor is stopped and releasable means for holding said rotor against rotation.

4. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a ielding member for arresting tobacco there- 1n, of means for feeding tobacco into said receiving means and against said member, and means for controlling the feeding means set into operation by movement of the member in response to pressure by said tobacco, said controlling means including a toothed wheel, a pawl arranged to coact with said wheel, and

means actuating the pawl in response to a' predetermined movement of said member.

5. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a yielding member for arrestin tobacco there 1n, of means for feeding toiacco into said receiving means and against said member, and means for controlling the feeding means set into operation by movement of the memher in response to pressure 'b said tobacco,

said cont-rolling means inclu ing a toothed wheel and means coacting with said toothed wheel and said feed to stop the feed when the toothed wheel is free to rotate and to start the feed when the wheel is stopped, and a pawl normally holding said wheel against rotation.

6. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a yielding member for arresting tobacco therein, of means for feeding tobacco into said receiving means and against said member, and means for controlling the feeding moans set into operation by movement of the member in response to pressure by said tobacco, said controlling means including a toothed wheel, a pawl arranged to coact with said wheel, means for moving said pawl to inoperative position and an automatic latch for securing said pawl in said inoperative position.

7. 'In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco and having a yielding member for arresting tobacco therein, of means for feeding tobacco into said receiving means and against said member, and means for controlling the feeding means set into operation by movement of the member in response to pressure by said tobacco, said controliing means including a toothed wheel, a pawl arranged to coact with said wheel, means for moving the pawl to inoperative position in response to a predetermined movement of said member and a second pawl moving means operative to move said pawl to said inoperative position on failure of the first mentioned pawl moving means to act.

8. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means'for receiving a charge of tobacco, of mechanism for feeding tobacco into said receiving means, a planetary gear transmission through which said mechanism is driven, and means coacting with said transmission to discon tinue the operation of said mechanism when a predetermined quantity of tobacco has been fed into said recelving means.

9. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco, of mechanism for feeding tobacco into said receiving means, means for driving said mechanism and means coacting with said drive to discontinue operation of the same when a predetermined quantity of tobacco has been fed into said receiving means, including a toothed wheel connected to said drive, a pawl for engagement therewith to prevent rotation of said wheel, and quick acting means for operating said pawl.

10. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge oftobacco, of mechanism for feeding tobacco into said receiving means, means for driving said mechanism and means coactin with said drive to discontinue operation o the same when a predetermined quantity of tobacco has been fed into said receiving means, including a toothed wheel connected to said drive, a pawl for engagement therewith to prevent rotation of said wheel,

and quick acting means for operating said pawl, said quick acting means comprising a spring pressed knockout lever for coaction with said pawl and a trip normally holding said lever out of engagement with said pawl.

11. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for receiving a charge of tobacco, of means for feeding tobacco into said receiving means, means for controlling said feed including a rotor, mechanism coacting with said rotor to stop the feed when the rotor is free to rotate and to start the feed when the rotor is stopped, and releasable means normally holding said rotor against rotation.

12. In an automatic filler feed for cigar machines, the combination with means for successively separating and forwarding a charge of tobacco from a mass, a'yielding member for arresting tobacco therein, mechanism for feeding filler tobacco into said separating and forwarding means, control means operating in one position to cause operation of the feeding means and in another to stop the same, said yielding member coacting with said control means to more the same to the latter position when a predetermined amount of tobacco has been fed into said separating means, and means for automatically restoring said control means to the former position after forwarding of the se arated charge.

In testimony whereof, 1 have signed my name to this specification.

VICTOR G. HANSON. 

